RE-pUBLIC-IST LAMENT

06-08-2007

The much-maligned Public Arts Centre in West Bromwich is hosting a competition offering one local person the chance to be its lift announcer, while the Taxpayers Alliance wants the whole building silenced altogether. Black Country poet Brendan Hawthorne offers his own distinctive voice.

They're trying to put a voice to the faceless

A little bit of local interest for the public's

wasted millions sunk into the vacuous hanger

as empty of imagination and devoid of organisation

as the heads of those heading up the project

We should dedicate a ‘name and shame' gallery

within those warehouse walls where we could

point oversize fingers at those who've poured the coffers

down the one and only well-maintained drain in Sandwell

And in so doing missed the opportunity for the region's status

to be elevated to a performance platform that

should have and could have been up there in

those bright national spotlights proving to the

local paper council celebrity lip service experts and the

rest of the country that the West Midlands has

creative talents within its ring road boundaries

and not just a bunch of individuals who cannot budget

even to the nearest ten million or so of funding

and pay off a wage bill for those ghost employees

who are not even on roll let alone the gravy train

We should have an indicator on the outside elevation

showing on a daily rate the spiralling costs incompetence

The new voice should be come from the towns of Sandwell

What has Wolverhampton got to do with it anyway?

Unless this Met Borough has delusions of City grandeur

The incoming managers still don't get it now

even when the estuary accents have diminished

leaving the sinking ship to the socially deprived

because the barrels have haemorrhaged dry

And maybe on that first tour of those hallowed chamber walls

there might be an explanation of how taxpayers were sold out

so that the citizens of this Borough can finally see

their prize trophy dedicated to the bewildered

the beleaguered offspring of some warped humour

where nobody sees the funny side because there isn't one

Nobody has a good belly laugh never mind a pat on the back

because this building will represent waste for as long as it stands

and the queue to unveil the plaque is as short as the collective temper

And how I feel that we have all had a glorious success story

snatched from us by the hands of public receivership

copyright 2007 Brendan Hawthorne

Also see “Call To Halt Public Spending On The Public” (link) then join the discussion on our Message Board